Phoenix Rising
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: Aladdin died to save the world from the dark god of destruction, and was reborn into a different form as a different person. Guarded by Yunan until the change was complete, the new Aladdin was taken and given to Sinbad to raise as his own child/ward in an effort to keep the same tragedy from occurring again. Will be a slow burn Sinbad/fem Aladdin. Rated M. new chap 10 up!
1. Chapter 1

It had been ten days and ten nights since the battle with the dark god had occurred and each of those that had participated in the battle was currently busy trying to help the people of Magnostadt in any way that they could while Koen, Alibaba, Morg, Sinbad and the rest of the royals were all back at camp trying to patiently wait for Aladdin to return from where Yunan had taken him after he had syphoned the power from the dark god enough to weaken it to the point where it could be destroyed.

But the cost of it's destruction may have come at a terrible price.

 _Aladdin..._

The precious little magi that had endeared himself to each of them and become their greatest friend and ally- had had to be mortally wounded by what Yunan had called the holy spear of the heavens. A weapon of a god.

The spear had been used to pierce Aladdin's heart, allowing the young magi's little remaining light to be magnified to the point where it had consumed the dark gods stolen power and redistributed it across the world. Not long after the light began to die out, Yunan had run over to Aladdin and grabbed the young magi and completely vanished.

Though they had managed to locate the two magi- Aladdin's state was unknown to them and Yunan refused to speak of the boy's condition or even let them close to him to assess his state for themselves. Instead whenever they tried, Yunan used a bit of his power to throw them back away from where he had placed Aladdin.

One thing that they did know for certain was that Aladdin was in a great deal of agony. The never ending screams that escaped the boy's throat was a testament to this. And it was creating havoc among the groups awaiting Aladdin's return.

Everyone was becoming increasingly concerned for the boy.

So much so that Alibaba had already collapsed and even though his friend Morgiana was caring for him at the moment- he had yet to bother eating or drinking much less sleeping for the past few days.

Even the king of Sindria was becoming distraught. Which isn't exactly anything new, Sinbad was very fond of Aladdin and had made an unspoken claim on the child as one of his household.

Something that Aladdin should have rebuffed him for, however the boy had simply either ignored Sinbad's unspoken claim on his person as a member of his household. Or perhaps he simply hadn't been aware of or known what Sinbad had done?

Either way, Yunan knew that Sinbad would likely cause problems for Aladdin once the changes in his new body were complete. It had been silent now for several hours, signifying the ending phase of the changes in the young Magi king's new body.

Feeling a few pulses of Aladdin's magoi brush up against him before petering out, Yunan slowly opened his eyes as he pushed himself up from his seat upon the rock that he had been sitting on for the past ten days and nights, and began to slowly move toward the new form of his new king. Completely ignoring the blood and gore that had come with the changes.

After all, Aladdin was the human embodiment of a phoenix.

He would perish and rise again from his own remains.

Approaching with caution because he knew that Aladdin would likely be very distressed as well as incredibly confused by what had happened, and not recall that he had perished and been reborn again- Yunan peeked around the corner of the stone formation where he had placed Aladdin so that he could change his form in peace, he first noted that the small child that had once been Aladdin was nothing but a smoldering, bloody and deformed empty shell lying on the ground.

And sitting in the middle of what had once been his own torso before it had been ripped in half... Was a small slender form of a silvery blond haired child with electric turquoise eyes.

 _Hn,_ Yunan thought as he silently pulled a long red and white fur lined cloak from one of the satchels that he carried on his person at all times, and then quietly approached the little one. The child's eyes watched him warily as he moved in on him/her. Those eyes never once blinked, but then again- that was sort of expected.

Slowly dropping to one knee in front of Aladdin, Yunan wrapped his new king in the cloak as he carefully looked the little one over.

This time Aladdin hadn't been born an eight year old. Apparently his former self had found his more child-like form vexing in some way. His new form looked to be between eleven to thirteen years of age. The features of the magi king's newest form was more feminine- delicate in face and in build. Not that he hadn't been before, but this time he was even more so.

The silvery blond hair surrounding the child's face, hung almost down to the child's waist and below that- Yunan blushed upon finding that his newest version of his king hadn't been born a male but a female instead.

"Sinbad and the others will have a field day with this." He muttered to himself and then sighed as he carefully bundled the child in the cloak and then picked her up since she likely wouldn't be in full control of all of her facilities for the next few days. Because much like her ability to speak and understand others- her memory wasn't totally intact at the moment.

She would need to be watched _carefully_ by her appointed guardians if she was to stay in good health.

Looking down at the girl in his arms, he noted that she had tilted her head back and was looking around, trying to take in everything of the world around her.

He had been present for the death and rebirth of his king at least a hundred times and the child's reaction to the world was always the same. His king was always so very curious upon being reborn.

That would have to be taken care of as well to keep her out of trouble since she was practically defenseless as she currently was. It would take anywhere between a few days, to a few weeks or more for her to totally regain her power so that she could defend herself if need be.

Whispering the same spell for teleportation that he had used before, he placed a hand over her eyes to keep her from becoming dizzy or- worst case scenario- sick to the point where she threw up on someone as they vanished form the small island twenty miles away from where they had originally been and reappeared in the middle of the camp that everyone had set up on the outskirts of Magnostadt, startling several of Reims fanalis.

"Yunan! You're back!" Muu all but shouted, catching the attention of Ren Kouen, his siblings that happened to be present, Ja-far and Sinbad as well as a few others allowing everyone to quickly converge on the magi while the child rested in his arms.

"Yunan. How is Aladdin? Why is he not here?" Sinbad finally broke through the small crowd and managed to ask him. His voice drowning out the happy cries and shouts among the encampment as everyone suddenly started looking around as if expecting Aladdin to simply pop up or simply drop out of the sky or something.

Yunan hesitated for a moment, during which time the child was able to throw the part of the cloak covering her head and face off and looked around at everyone for a moment before someone asked, "Who is that?" causing Yunan to laugh almost nervously before he slowly replied loud enough for everyone to hear.

"The Aladdin that you all know is dead," The looks of pain and horror on everyone's faces was devastating to see. Looking down at the girl, he gave her a small smile before walking forward until he was standing right in front of Sinbad before going on to say, "The Aladdin that you know is gone. This child...was born from his power and his body. In many ways including essence- this is Aladdin. Simply in another form. He's been returned to his truest and most _purest_ state of being in this form."

"I won't bother to lie and tell you that this child will be exactly the same as him, but the things that came to matter to each of you about him- those things still exist. Her memory isn't totally intact right now, and neither are all of her facilities. A little help from Pheonix and Ja-far might help her along. But everything else will return to normal again in time. Until then, she needs a guardian. And as the one who carries out her will, I am appointing Sinbad, the king of Sindria as her adoptive father." And with that, Yunan carefully handed the girl over to Sinbad who took her in his arms and looked down at her with wide amber eyes as the girl reached up with one small hand and ran her fingertips along the curve of one of his cheeks curiously.

"I- Yunan- I can't- _Is this wise?_ " Sinbad seemed to stumble over his own words for several moments in growing alarm when Yunan chuckled and then asked,

"Would you rather I give her to Ren Kouen to be her adopted father? Despite your differences and dislike of him- he is currently the only other person that I feel Aladdin as she is now can trust to take care of and protect her until she is more like herself."

Sinbad opened and then closed his mouth for a moment or so before quickly realizing that he was backed into a corner here and then snapping his mouth shut. Yunan grinned slightly and began to reach for the girl as if to take her from him and watched in satisfaction as the man shot him a dark look over the top of the girl's silver blond head and quickly tightened his arms around her to the point where the child squeaked as if to tell the man that he was sort of hurting her. Causing him to slowly loosen his hold on her a tad bit as he snarled at Yunan.

Declaring before all in the camp that _no one_ would be taking Aladdin from him and live.


	2. Chapter 2

Alibaba had come to check on Aladdin the absolute moment that he had heard that Yunan had brought his young friend back with Morgiana quick on his heels. Practically dogging every step he took to Sinbad's tent where he found the man sitting in an overly large wooden wing backed chair with plush red and violet cushions.

And carefully sat in his lap was a strange looking little kid dressed in a nice soft blue and gold dress made of the finest of silks.

Sinbad looked up from Aladdin's new self and blinked as Alibaba and Morgiana entered his tent with a flourish. The blond looked as if he had definitely seen better days, and after the nightmarish ten days and nights he had just spent falling into a deep depression- Sinbad supposed that he had actually seen better days. The poor young prince was pale, looked as if he had lost several pounds of weight from not eating, and there was dangerously dark bags underneath his eyes from the lack of sleep.

"Aladdin." Was all the boy said as Sinbad shifted his weight slightly so that he could bounce the child on his legs a little bit.

He had been an adopted father for all of ten minutes before he had accidentally fumbled the child and dropped her on her head in front of Yunan whom had just finished yelling at him like a deranged mother hen and left in a snit- so now he was trying to keep the little one from crying and throwing a tantrum by bouncing her on his legs.

Children liked bouncing. Or at least that was his experience with the younger ones.

Although right now he didn't exactly know _what_ to do with the child that Yunan had given to him as a ward. She was just slightly significantly older than an ordinary small child. Even if it was only by two or so years.

Yet she was not yet what one would consider an adult.

At least by Sinbad's standards.

Although he didn't know what he was going to do once she started blossoming into a woman. He doubted that he would really notice any physical changes in her unless he woke up one day and she was taller and had a big, noticeable bust- in which case he may just hand her over to Ren Kouen to see how he would possibly handle her.

After all, he'd gone through the joy of watching two of his sister's become young women. So surely there must be a trick to it?

And then there was the fact that as his ward/daughter and a powerful magi that had saved the world- she would be famous enough in the right circles to be targeted for capture and forced into arranged marriages and so on.

 _Dear god what the hell had Yunan signed me up for?_ He wondered in dread as those things finally occurred to him. If any of that happened, he'd wind up going to war every other week or so...

"Aladdin?" Alibaba said again, this time his tone was slightly more hesitant. Yet it cut through Sinbad's thoughts like a knife, causing his amber eyes to flicker away from the little one (whom he had yet to even figure out a name for since none of them could continue calling her Aladdin- it simply wasn't a good name for a little girl) as he replied,

"Oh right. Sorry Alibaba, Morgiana. Please come meet Aladdin's new form."

The two stood there for a moment in utter silence as the little one turned her head to look at them with her electric turquoise colored eyes as Sinbad used his long fingers and blunt nails to finger comb her long hair. He hadn't noticed before, but between the wind and everything else the girl's hair was becoming tangled. And if it got tangled badly enough, it would have to be cut to prevent injury to her when the knots were being taken out.

"What do you mean, meet Aladdin's new form?" Morgiana asked in a slightly suspicious tone as she moved forward to stand directly beside Alibaba.

"Come see for yourself. Yuana told me what happened but even I cannot make sense of it. All I know is that the Aladdin that we all knew is gone, and this child had somehow taken his place in the world. Yunan claimed that this little one _is_ in essence _Aladdin_ , himself, in his truest and most purest form. I can only assume that he meant a new physical form as well as a new mind. Both are untouched by the horrors- pain, grief, hatred, and sorrow- of the world in which we live."

Alibaba made a slightly distressed sound in the back of his throat as Morgiana thought for a moment before stepping forward to sniff the girl. Thinking if she were really their friend Aladdin then she would smell like him.

She wasn't entirely wrong. The child did still smell like Aladdin to her.

She carried the scent of a growing storm, lightening, and rain. But she also carried a little bit of an extra scent to her person as well. Flowers and wind.

It was old and new, but not entirely unpleasant to the fanalis sensitive senses.

It was certainly enough to have her convinced of who the child really was. Besides, she doubted that Yunan would have taken Aladdin away and hidden him somewhere simply to let him die so that he could roll this child around in his blood or something and then bring her before them and claim that she was him.

That would be just stupid and Yunan simply wasn't a stupid person. Much less a liar.

"Morgiana?"

"She's Aladdin alright. No one else can smell like a growing storm. Though there is a slight difference in her scent, it's subtle enough that it could simply be because of the change in genders."

Sinbad and Alibaba both looked at the little blond as she lifted her little arms out towards Alibaba and wiggled her fingers some.

"I think that she wants you to come to her Alibaba."

The young prince hesitated for several heartbeats before reluctantly moving to come closer to the child and then bent down at the child's continued urging until he was close enough for her to wrap her little arms around his neck and nuzzle her face against his cheek and said in a broken garbled sounding voice, _"My...Ali-baba."_

Alibaba blinked back tears for a moment as he carefully lifted the girl up off of Sinbad's lap and hugged her as he cried, " _It's him_. It's Aladdin. Only he would call me his Alibaba." As Sinbad gave him a wry smile before saying gently.

"Yunan did say that Aladdin still retains his memories and knowledge even in this form. Every thing is simply jumbled and fragmented for the moment. It will take a little bit of time for everything to return to a normal state."

"What happened to him after Yunan took him?" Alibaba asked, feeling suddenly pissed about everything.

"From what I learned from Yunan... Aladdin _was_ mortally wounded from the heaven's spear. And before his life could completely die out- he began changing himself internally and externally in order to remain alive in this world. The reason it took so long for them to return here, may have had something to do with Aladdin needing to heal himself while changing. I believe that this was no easy task even for a magi of Aladdin's caliber."

"When I was on the dark continent with Yunan, he told me stories of people capable of cheating death by changing themselves into another person while their former selves died. But I had thought that they were just mere stories." Morgiana said as Alibaba sank down to the ground and settled himself there with the girl in his arms.

"I've come across such stories myself off and on during my travels around the world. But I never believed that I would come across someone actually powerful enough to pull it off. I for one can't wait for Aladdin to regain her memories and such so that I may pick her brain a little bit about how it was done." Sinbad said before leaning down to take the child from Alibaba, only to have the prince growl at him like a feral animal and startle the king into freezing up before he could so much as touch the girl.

"Aladdin is staying with me."

"Be practical Alibaba, you are pretty much dead on your feet and are in desperate need of sleep and food before you become ill."

"Aladdin is staying with me." The prince said again, this time in a firmer tone. He wasn't asking that Sinbad back off, he was pretty much demanding that he back off. He had come to the conclusion that regardless of what form, or what little memories the child retained at the moment- Aladdin was Aladdin, and she belonged with he and Morgiana.

Besides, after ten days and ten nights, dying and being reborn; he imagined that Aladdin was in desperate need of some food and rest as well. How else would she get better?

"Has she eaten anything? Rested?" Alibaba asked.

"No. Not that I'm aware of."

"Then she can come with me and Morgiana and be taken care of. If you want to check in on her later, fine, but for now she stays with us."

Sinbad sighed knowing that the boy would fight him on this if he felt that he must. He was simply that stubborn. It was both a very fascinating and irksome quality. But then Aladdin was much the same way, he noted as he looked at the girl. She was clinging to the prince as if he were her only life line in the world.

So perhaps it would be for the best to allow them this?

"Very well Alibaba, but I warn you- Yuana has given Aladdin into my care as my ward. As of today Aladdin is a princess of Sindria and is to be considered my own daughter. I do not have to tell you what will happen if she is injured, kidnapped or lost, yes?"

Alibaba stared at the man wide eyed for a moment before slowly nodding his head in understanding before quickly having Morgiana help him up to his feet and with a quick nod in Sinbad's direction, the three left the king to his own vices.


	3. Chapter 3

Shortly after Alibaba and Morgiana took Aladdin with them to get some food and much needed rest, Sinbad left his tent to go check on the three and found Alibaba and Morgiana lying together on Alibaba's makeshift bed with Aladdin wedged between their bodies, tangled up in their arms and legs.

The three were completely sound asleep and after looking around Alibaba's tent for a moment, Sinbad spied the large piles of bowls, and plates- showing that the three had indeed eaten something before crashing.

Which was good.

It meant one less thing that he needed to bother worrying about in regards to Aladdin's welfare. Especially since tomorrow he would be sending a message to Sindria telling his generals of what had occurred as well as Aladdin's demise and rebirth as his adopted daughter and the princess of his kingdom.

Silently walking over to the bed where Alibaba, Morg, and Aladdin lay, he reached out and very gently brushed his fingertips along the child's pale crown of hair causing her to twitch ever so slightly before slowly opening her eyes to look at him as he leaned over her and carefully collected her from her friends.

Accidentally waking Morgiana in the process.

"I'm taking Aladdin with me for the rest of the day. You and Alibaba can come and get her tomorrow when you are both up." Sinbad said in a whispered tone as he cradled Aladdin in his arms and straightened his spine. Morgiana nodded her head subtly and then closed her eyes again as he turned and left the tent to return to his own.

He still had much to sort out now and he needed to go over some things with his allies.

Including how to integrate Aladdin into palace life as a princess while nurturing her as both a child and a powerful magi. He'd been trying to plan these things out for several hours now and had come up with nothing. It was like his mind was refusing to function.

It was incredibly vexing to say the least.

Especially since he wasn't all that sure what to do with the girl. He hadn't even come up with a nice name for her yet! And he doubted that simply making sure that she was fed, slept, and clothed was what Yunan had in mind when he had handed her over to him as his ward.

But in his defense, he had _never_ really raised a child before. Sure he had kinda raised his generals, but most of them had been either around his age at the time he had begun his quest to be king or just slightly older than he was at the time.

However the main difference there was he had been partially raising people who would become his right hand, his generals, his warriors to help him protect their home and ideals.

He couldn't raise Aladdin, who was a magi- a sorcerer of creation- in a similar fashion. To do so would be taking her very nature as a magi and to warp it into something dark and sinister. It would taint her. And since she had been left in his care, after basically dying and being reborn from her former bodies flesh- he couldn't allow her to become tainted or warped into something sinister.

Aladdin was Aladdin. Special, kind, sweet and _oh-so-very_ unique to the world. And after everything that her former self had done to ensure the continued survival of the world and all in it. He would have to find a way to keep her as she currently was. _Pure._

If that meant protecting her while his friends, and his very kingdom and his dream and ideals went up in flames and ashes... Then sacrificing his dreams, and ideals, and his kingdom, and his friends to prevent her light and purity from being snuffed out forever was the very least that he could do if it came down to it.

Re entering his tent with Aladdin curled up in his arms, he carried her over to his own makeshift bed and placed her down on it and then tucked her in before leaving for a moment to see if he could get someone to watch her for him while he left for go help with the relief efforts for a few hours.

And wound up coming face to face with Ren Kouen and his younger brother Kamui.

"Sinbad, how is Aladdin?" The king of the Kou empire asked politely, his wine colored eyes staring at the man with unblinking wine red eyes.

"She is resting for the moment..."Sinbad replied before asking curiously, "Is there something that I can help your two with?" His warm amber colored eyes narrowing ever so slightly at the two.

"We merely wished to see Aladdin for a moment and see for ourselves just how much he has changed." Ren Kouen said. No doubt wondering if the child was still able to uphold her former self's end of the deal that they had made.

"Very well. Come." Sinbad said as he moved back a bit to allow the two to enter his tent and pointed to where Aladdin rested and then watched the two silently approach her. They took a moment to stare at the little blond before Kouen turned to him with a questioning look on his handsome face.

"I do not know what Aladdin promised you to get you to fight with us, Kouen. However please keep in mind that Aladdin has never gone back on his word or broken a promise about anything. I would imagine that whatever it was you were to be given for helping out- you will still get it. It just may take a tad bit longer." Sinbad said.

"I'm not worried about that. And I have no issue with waiting. I was merely curious about Aladdin's new state as your ward."

"Oh." Sinbad said, internally cringing slightly at the subject since he still hadn't gotten very far in his plans. "Yes, of course. What is it you wish to know?"

"Will she simply be seen as your ward or a princess of Sindria?"

"Regardless of which she is seen as by others- I plan to fully integrate her into my court as my own blood child."

"Her education?"

"I have some of the finest people back home to see to her education as a royal."

"What about her magi abilities?"

"I fully intend to let Aladdin be who she is. However to those outside of my kingdom- she will simply be my daughter. Not a _nearly_ - _godlike-in-power_ , magi. To tell others such would be foolhardy. Especially with many of the nobles within my court will already be targeting her simply for being my child."

"I agree." Kouen said the rumbling of his voice causing the little one to stir a bit and toss back the furs covering her so that she could sit up and look around. Sinbad saw her sitting up on his bed and sighed before he walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it and then reached out so that he could smooth back her tousled silvery blond hair,

"My wayward little one, what do you think you are doing?" He asked in a gentle tone that surprised both of the other men present. Who knew that the king of Sindria could be so paternal? He had certainly never shown any indication that he even _liked_ children. Yet seeing him like this, he seemed like a damn natural.

It was...baffling to say the least.

Well- to Kamui at least.

Although when one thought about it, and compared his elder brother to the king of Sindria, at first glance no one ever really noticed that Kouen liked children either. He always made himself seem so aloof and unreachable to others. But whenever something happened and there was a child involved, one could usually find his elder brother right in the thick of things doing what he could. Whether it was playing with said child, teaching it, or fighting to protect it.

Kamui got the feeling that Sinbad was exactly the same.

"Is there anything else that you need help figuring out in regards to Aladdin?" Kouen asked curiously, getting a peculiar look from Sinbad before he reluctantly nodded his head and said,

"Yes actually. Several things. I need a new name for Aladdin. Something that can be used for her new form. I also wished to speak to you, your siblings, Muu and the fanilis core and a few others currently present at this time."

"Alright, what about?"

"In light of Aladdin's former selfe's demise and her current self's birth to protect each of us. I think it would benefit each of us if we entered into an alliance so that something like this never happens to Aladdin nor anyone else ever again."


	4. Chapter 4

It took about a month to get everything settled in Magnostadt and rebuild what they could as well as recover the bodies of the dead and injured and missing and do what they could to return each person to their families to be taken care of properly. And during everyone's down time they each took time out of their busy day or night to see Aladdin and how she was coming along.

Sinbad had been bonding beautifully with the girl.

Fortunately or unfortunately as the case may be- so had everyone else, much to Sinbad's ire. Everyday he wound up sharing his new daughter with each of the kings and princes and princesses, Alibaba, Morgiana, the fanilis core- whom had taken it upon themselves to try teaching Aladdin to fight.

Which had been put to an rather abrupt stop when Sinbad had been walking through the camp one day looking for her along with Ja-far and several others only to come upon the scene of one of Muu's warriors landing a solid punch on the girl, not only knocking her down, but damn near breaking her tiny little button nose before Sinbad and his general Ja-far, Ren Kouen and his younger brother Kouha suddenly converged on Aladdin's location and at least two of the other fanilis there had to pull Sinbad and Kouen off of the man that had injured Aladdin just to keep them from killing him for doing something so stupid as to attempt teaching the magi how to fight when she had yet to regain much of her cognitive abilities and couldn't defend herself.

Muu had also been taken to task by Sinbad and forbidden from teaching Aladdin anything more unless the child asked to learn something from him and his family and friends _specifically_.

After that Sinbad had stayed much closer to Aladdin for several days. Partially because of the child being more than a little bit concussed, and partially because he needed to see to it nothing like that happened ever again.

It was around the end of the month when Sinbad decided that he and the rest of his new allies had been away from their homes long enough and turned over the relief efforts to his friends from the Seven Sea's Alliance who seemed to understand after speaking with him at length about things, that as a new father his priorities were vastly different now.

Especially since there was much in the way of loose ends concerning Aladdin and her place in his household and kingdom that needed to be taken care of.

Ever since it had been announced via his chosen proxy, Hinahoho that he had a child, which was the lie everyone who knew of Aladdin's sudden physical and gender changes had agreed upon to help assure her place as his daughter and princess of his kingdom, several of the noble families within his court had been demanding that he produce her to be introduced to the court.

Hinahoho had vehemently refused their demands. However they began to issue threats in recent weeks that simply could not be ignored any longer. He had of course been forced to _kill_ several of the nobles causing the most trouble, but everyone was beginning to get restless and made similar demands making it difficult to keep everyone under control.

And as such Sinbad needed to return before he found himself dethroned.

And then there was Aladdin. As she was even Sinbad knew that she could not stand before his court. Though he supposed that if he should force her to do so, he would simply have to tell everyone that she suffered an injury in Magnostadt that had addled her mind a bit. However she was expected to make a complete recovery in a few months time.

At least the story would technically cover why she didn't answer any of the noble's questions about who her mother was or where she had been born and whatnot. Giving Sinbad the time that he desperately needed to scramble for a completely believable origin story for her.

That and he had still yet to come up with a name for the girl.

Speaking of which, perhaps he should sit down with Aladdin and let her choose her own name. Of course there was at least a small partial chance that she might decide or take a liking to the word 'kitty' or something else equally embarrassing, but if that happened he supposed that that could always be her nickname.

Entering his tent, he noticed that Ren Kouen's younger brother Komui was sitting there with Ja-far while Aladdin sat at his desk with some parchment and a quill and ink. Her little face was marred by a dark scowl and had some random places upon her skin that was discolored from the ink smeared upon it while the two men watched her with barely restrained mirth in their expressions.

"What's this?" Sinbad asked curiously as he walked over to the desk to see what his daughter was scowling so darkly at.

"She decided to try writing something down. But we can't really tell what it is or if it has any significance." Ja-far said as he hid his laughter behind a well placed cough as Aladdin raided her eyes from the paper to scowl at the three of them. Her electric turquoise eyes boring into each of their skulls, causing even Sinbad to have to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at her.

That expression on her pretty little face was wholly Aladdin's. He'd always worn such a look on his face whenever something perplexed him or needed his total concentration.

And that look was utterly _adorable_ on her.

Baring her teeth at them for a moment in a silent snarl, she then turned her attention back to the parchment and began scribbling on it again until words began to slowly form across the page. Or rather- a word, written over and over and over again.

Moving so that he was no longer in the line of fire just in case she saw fit to throw something at someone's head like he'd seen her do before several weeks ago- Sinbad leaned over her shoulder a little bit to see what she was writing and blinked as he slowly reached out to take the parchment from her. Wary that she might throw a fit of some kind if he wasn't careful.

However she seemed to know what he was doing and allowed him to take the parchment from it's place in front of her on the desk, and hold it up so that he could scan the words.

At first- it really was nothing but scribbles. But then eventually around half way down the page, the scribbles slowly ended and names began to appear.

Not just any names, but girl names.

Had Aladdin decided to try figuring out names for herself? He wondered before coming across one name in particular that made him smile.

Selene.

It was such a unique name, one that he didn't think he'd ever seen or spoken nor heard before. So he tried testing it out a few times, quietly before finding it satisfactory and leaning down to see what Aladdin thought of it.

"Selene," Aladdin blinked almost owlishly at him for a moment as he said it again in a teasing tone. _"Se-le-ne,"_ Her lips twitched this time. It was subtle, but the movement was there nevertheless. "Do you like the name?" He asked curiously, watching her closely for any signs of dislike and upon finding none, looked at Ja-far and Komui and then said,

"Then that will be your name from now on, my little Selene."


	5. Chapter 5

**For crying out loud- it's a fan fic. As in a fiction.**

 **Sinbad is barely ten years older than Aladdin in this fic. And it _isn't_ pedophilia unless she's a kid when stuff happens between them. An just because he's her guardian doesn't mean that they are blood related. **

**If you have personal issues with the story- then don't read it, Shikieiki.**

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"Selene is a good name for Aladdin's new self. You both picked well." Ja-far said later that evening as Sinbad watched Alibaba and Morg attempt putting the girl to bed, especially since despite gaining back some of her mental and physical facilities- Selene was at this moment- still very much like a toddler.

Or at least that was what Sinbad and several of the others had likened her to at least.

And though she was steadily beginning to regain bits and pieces of her former self, it was a slow and often times very frustrating process. Not for just Selene but for the ones around her as well.

The only ones who didn't seem to be terribly affected by this fact were Alibaba whom was more like an older brother to the girl now than merely her kings candidate and best friend. Another who remained unaffected was Morgiana. Sinbad often had moments where he did become bothered a little bit, but for the most part he took pretty much everything in stride.

Ren Kouen and his siblings had shocked the shit out of everyone in the encampment a few times by sitting down with Selene and slowly teaching her how to speak, and articulate her thoughts better. Hell the damn man had even sat down with her one day and taught her how to read and then smiled while he had handed over a few scrolls for her to practice with.

She had been speaking more, though her voice and thoughts were still more muddled than they should be. And even Selene herself had broken down and cried a few times out of frustration because she didn't seem to understand that her body was still slowly, _very_ slowly in Sinbad's opinion- healing itself from the trauma's that it had suffered.

Still, everyone in the camp took the time out each day to sit down and speak with or even entertain the girl as if she were still Aladdin. It didn't seem to matter much to anyone that she was different now.

Everyone in the camp knew what had happened to her. They had witnessed it themselves and were of the same mind that Sinbad and Alibaba and some of the others were.

Aladdin was simply Aladdin.

It was a comforting thought to Sinbad as he watched Alibaba make some weird hand gestures that made nice shadow puppets on the wall of the tent right about the kings bed and felt his lips quirk some when Selene began to giggle. The sound was faint, raspy, almost breathless in it's brokenness. But Sinbad and the other occupants of the tent couldn't help but be enchanted by the odd sounds of the young magi's mirth.

"Yes. Selene is a fine name for our young friend." Sinbad said in a gentle tone that was rare for him. Even his expression was one that was rarely seen by others, _including_ those of his closest of generals. The main reason for this was Sinbad's noble station as their king.

Another reason was that the people of his court were a bunch of damned fools and if they could see him now- they would think him weak and try to exploit his weakness.

When Aladdin had perished and been reborn from his own corpse with a weaker mind and body and almost _no_ power at all, Selene had gone from being a powerhouse with an amazingly cunning mind to Sinbad's main weakness at the moment.

It was why his king had decided to gather all of his allies close to him. He wanted to weed out those who would honor their word to protect Selene. And who would attempt to destroy her, or even try to use her against Sinbad for their own gain and greed.

His king was nothing, if not meticulous in all of his planning. It was something that Ja-far had often found himself in awe of. Unless Sinbad was drunk and simply half assed everything, but even then there was a certain level of meticulousness that was simply mind boggling.

"We are leaving first thing in the morning." Sinbad finally said quietly, cutting through Ja-far's thoughts like a knife and causing the younger man to look at him for a moment. Sinbad suddenly looked...uh, well, for a lack of a better word... _pissed_.

And for good reason, Ja-far supposed.

The other noble families that made up Sinbad's court were still an issue. The former assassin had no doubt in his mind that once Selene was introduced to them as Sinbad's child, they would be clamoring for proof and demanded who the mother was, where she was why no one knew of Selene and some would even try to demand that Sinbad marry to ensure that the girl had a 'mother' figure.

Obviously most people weren't aware of just how much Sinbad would fight them on that last one.

Not because he didn't one day wish to marry and have children of his own, but because if he was foolish enough to cave into their whims, Selene's life would be placed in danger.

Either her new 'mother figure' would attempt to murder her to gain Sinbad's undivided attention or she would be kidnapped and either held hostage at an undisclosed location for an unknown amount of time or she would be sold to a brothel or even sent to fight and die as a gladiator.

Either way, the nobles were going to learn fast that Sinbad would not bend to their will nor their stupid demands.

"Do you know how your going to handle the court?" It was a stupid question, Ja-far realized that the moment that Sinbad's gaze flickered from Selene to his face.

"I'll do what I have to- to ensure Selene's continued safety and well being."

"And if that means war?"

"Then I will bloody my hands." Sinbad said simply with a slight shrug of his broad shoulders before moving from his vassal's side and moved further into his tent as Alibaba finally let his arms drop to his sides with a sigh while Morg bit back a giggle at his expression as Sinbad knelt down next to Selene and noted that while she wasn't exactly asleep, she wasn't all that totally awake either.

Apparently the shadow puppets had entertained her enough to put her in a light doze, though her eyes did crack slightly when he began fussing with the blanket covering her before he shifted and settled his hand on the crown of her head and brushed her soft hair back from her face.

"Sleep tight little one. Tomorrow is going to be a big day just full of surprises," He said in a low tone as Selene closed her electric turquoise eyes and let out a deep breath and finally seemed to fall asleep as Sinbad slowly rose to tower over her and the bed and looked at Alibaba. "I wish for you and Morgiana to act as Selene's bodyguards from now on...at least until she is back to normal again."

"You expect trouble?"

"More than a fair share of it, yes. I've spoken with several others about acting as guards for Selene until she is normal again, and so far I plan to have Ja-far, Ren Kouha, and his elder brother Komui come with us. I also plan to assign Sharkkan to her as a guard as well. Until things are settled I need each of you to stay as close to her as humanly possible without causing any issues. If we want her to return to as normal as possible she will be given lessons on things she knew before she changed- just to help her remember faster. I will also have her secretly relearn what magic she can. Do you think that you can do this for me? For her rather? Can you work with the people that I've just mentioned to keep her safe?"

"Uh...sure. I don't have any problems with any of them," Alibaba said as he glanced over at Morgiana and asked, "Do you?"

"No."

"Alright then it's settled. We'll guard Selene."

"Thank you, you two. I appreciate this. And I know that she will be safe with you." Sinbad said with a slight bow of his head to the two to show his gratitude before bidding the two young adults a good evening and moving over to his desk to sit and look over some papers for a little while before he went to bed.


	6. Chapter 6

Morning came much faster than Sinbad had expected it to. One moment he had been looking over some papers that he'd brought with him to work on. New bills and such, he thought with a slight sneer. And the next thing he knew, there was light filtering into his tent and into his already bleary eyes, making him hiss in discomfort and move to avoid it like Sharrkan on a really bad drinking binge.

The noise of which had managed to awaken Selene as he hit the ground, wedged between the bed and the back of his tent...glaring towards the entrance of his makeshift home and _seethe_.

How dare the sun rise at such an early hour! Why, he hadn't even managed to go to sleep yet. And he was tired after being up all damned night with those stupid papers!

Selene rolled over on the bed and looked at him with those eerie eyes of hers as he gave her a somewhat strained smile as she reached out and laid her tiny hand on the side of his face and- Well to be perfectly honest, he didn't know what happened.

One moment he was looking at his adopted daughter and the next he felt something incredibly warm being pressed into his skin and before he could so much as jerk back away from her, his vision began to swim and he...woke up with Hinahoho in his face and screamed as he scrambled up over whatever he'd been laying on and placed it firmly between himself and his general who was looking at him strangely before saying slowly, "Well, that was something."

Sinbad could only press a hand to his chest in an attempt to keep his heart from leaping out of his fucking chest since he couldn't exactly speak at the moment. He simply didn't trust himself to at the moment.

"You look much better now than you did when Ja-far found you." The blue haired giant said. Unknowingly answering at least several of Sinbad's questions as he finally managed to calm down enough to try speaking.

"W-What happened?"

"Dunno. What do you recall?" Hina asked as he grabbed a cup off of the table across the room where Sinbad often ate when he wished to be alone, and poured some water into it and then made his way back over to his king and held it out to him.

Sinbad hesitated for a moment and then took it, briefly muttering a weak sounding 'thanks' to his old friend before drinking any of the liquid. The moment that the cup was away from his lips, he looked around in confusion and noted that he back in Sindria, or more specifically, his room at the palace.

"I vaguely recall Selene touching me and then...nothing."

"Selene? You mean Aladdin's incarnation?" Hina guessed, his expression puzzled. Though he had been appraised of the situation, he didn't know all of the details since no one had seen fit to tell him. Making his job as Sinbad's proxy somewhat difficult.

"What? Oh yes, yes- Sorry my friend, I forgot that none of you knew of her new name."

"And Aladdin's new name is Selene?"

"Yes."

"Very well. So she touched you, and you racall nothing after?"

"No."

"She must have put you to sleep for some reason." Hina said as Sinbad finally came out from between the bed and the wall. There was a small puzzled frown on his handsome face as he seemed to be mulling over Hinahoho's words for a moment before slowly saying.

"I didn't sleep all night."

"Then maybe that was the reason why she put you to sleep. Yam certainly seemed to think so when she examined you."

Sinbad seemed to consider this as well before finally asking, "Where is Selene right now?"

"Ja-far handed her off to someone else and told them to keep her away from you until you awakened. I think he was worried that there was some suspicious reason behind why you were put to sleep," Hina replied before then asking, "So this... Selene person is really our young Aladdin?"

"Hn? Oh, yes. Have you seen her yet?"

"No."

"Then you and the rest of the generals will be seeing her once I do. Can you tell me where she may be?"

"Tough question there, I think that the person that she was handed off to is out on the garden."

"I see. Thank you Hina." Sinbad said as he started towards his bedroom door only to pause briefly to turn and tell the man to follow him as he headed for the door. It took them a short time to walk the halls to reach the garden, and along the way there, they were met by Ja-far who worriedly fell into step beside his king and babbled endlessly as Sinbad took the white marble steps down to the first level where the garden was located.

He could hear the faint sounds of talking and laughing coming form there. So obviously whoever Selene had been handed off to was keeping the child entertained.

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To say that she had been upset by being separated from the tall man with the amber eyes would be an gross understatement. To try saying that being chastised by the weird man with the light blond hair and freckles had been a pleasant experience, would also be a gross understatement.

She didn't know what the weird man with the blond hair and freckles was upset about. She had merely put the other man to sleep because she could sense his anxiety and his slight exhaustion.

It wasn't like she had set out to scramble his brain or anything.

She could have, if she had truly wished it. But she refrained from doing so because he didn't deserve to have his brain scrambled. Besides, it wasn't as if he had hurt her or threatened her in the past month she had been in his care.

"Selene, do you want to play a game?" A nice lady with slightly longer than her shoulder's length hair that was an oddly colored vivid pinkish red asked kindly. She knew this woman. Just as she seemed to be aware of knowing everyone else that she had come into contact with thus far.

The man she had put to sleep, his name was Sinbad. Or at least that was his name in this place. In actuality, his true name was David. And though he didn't seem aware of it, he wore the embroidered crest of her household upon his clothing.

As did the man that had yelled at her and several others.

Feeling her hand being gently taken, she glanced at the nice lady again and blinked as she was jolted out of her thoughts for a moment to see that another blond man- this one younger than the one that had shouted at her before- was kneeling down next to the lady, staring at her with an expression of concern even as he gave her a small smile and reached out to pat her head.

"It's okay if you don't feel like playing right now. Try not to take anything that Ja-far said before to heart, he's just worried about Sinbad."

She blinked at him as he grinned at her and then slowly dropped his hand away from her head as he seemed to sense what she had known all along.

Sinbad was up and on the move. In fact, if she turned around- she'd bet she'd find him standing...

 _"Selene."_ His voice held no anger, no contempt, though she could swear that she detected a little bit of a question in his tone as she turned around to look at him. His coloring was better now, and he didn't have such dark circles underneath his eyes. In fact compared to how he looked this morning when she had first put him to sleep, he looked much, much better.

He knelt down and held his arms out to her and used his fingers to bid her to come to him. She did so with only a little bit of hesitance due to the fact that the blond man that had yelled at her was there, looking at her funny and scowling.

 _The jerk._ She thought feeling just a little bit irked by the man's attitude towards her when just the other day he had been warm and kind. She didn't understand the sudden shift in how he was acting towards her, but she didn't like it.

Not. One. Little. Bit.

Walking over to where Sinbad knelt, she watched the man for a moment before stepping within his reach and letting him close his arms around her small body and hug her as he slowly got back up, taking her with him as he went. He kept her locked in his embrace as he spoke softly, his breath tickling her ear slightly as he did so. "I will have to keep on my toes much more than normal from now on. Especially if your going to pull fast ones on me like you did earlier."

She giggled and buried her face against his shoulder for a moment before lifting her head and kissing him on the cheek, startling him somewhat. Or at least that's what she thought from how quickly he almost dropped her.

He stared at her with wide amber eyes.

And she stared right back, confused by his reaction to the little peck on the cheek when he suddenly cleared his throat and hugged her against his torso again and then turned to a really, really, _really_ tall man with long ocean blue hair and eyes just as blue as the sky.

"Hinahoho, this is Selene," Sinbad said as the giant leaned down a bit at the waist to look at her up close. Causing her eyes to widen in a comical expression of awe before she realized just how close to her his face was and squeaked and quickly buried her face against Sinbad's shoulder again to hide herself from his scrutiny.

However the giant was having none of that. His questioning gaze flickered to Sinbad for a moment, almost as if to ask if the child before him was truly the little magi that each of them had grown so fond of, and got a subtle nod from his king before he reached out and tapped the little one on the shoulder to gain her attention and then once he had it, he smiled and introduced himself to her.

Selene though didn't seem able to grasp his name just yet and simply pointed to his hair and said in a broken voice, "B-lue?" Causing Hina to frown somewhat at the broken garbled sound that escaped her pale lips.

Gods! The child sounded as if she had suffered _years_ of nearly endless torture!

Her voice was beyond unrecognizable and broken to the giant.

She sounded as if her voice was _irreparably_ damaged! How was she to communicate with them all if they could not understand her? And what if she found herself in danger? Her voice was hardly in any condition to call out for help if she should need it.

And from what he had understood of her condition, her mind was all but fragmented. Leaving her in an far more innocent and almost _infant-like_ state than Aladdin himself had been in when they had first met him.

His concerned gaze studied the child for a moment, noting that the girl's face- was exactly as it had been before, it was merely more feminine, the eyes a little bit wider, the lashes a bit longer and the skin and hair coloring was simply fairer. So he didn't totally doubt that the child was Aladdin, however he would feel a tad bit better if she could do a small magic demonstration.

Perhaps something that only Aladdin was known to do? It would help to reassure him greatly. However he knew that in her present condition hat was out of the question.

It didn't stop him from greeting her in a warm and friendly manner though.


	7. Chapter 7

"So...that adorable little one is truly _our_ young Aladdin?" Hinahoho asked, for some reason finding it somewhat difficult to wrap his head around the fact that the young magi was no longer the person that he remembered running happily around the palace, learning magic, and playing games and pranks and livening things up for everyone.

It was... _difficult_ for the warrior to conceive of the kind of power that could alter someone so profoundly in such a deeply fundamental way.

"Yes." Sinbad confirmed as he quietly took a seat on one of the marble steps while tacking on, "That child is our young Aladdin. Although she has chosen a new name for herself to go with her new form."

"Selene?" Sinbad nodded his head, his expression sober as he watched the small blond run in circles around one of the large trees in the garden with Alibaba fast on her heels. While Morgiana sat in the tree's branches above the two, watching them like a hawk.

Alibaba managed to catch the girl before she could get much further away from him when she finally tripped over a tree root and nearly fell as he wrapped his arms around her and picked her up and swung her around. Eliciting squeaks and peals of laughter from the child.

"Sin, how did this happen?" Hinahoho asked after a length of time watching the child resume another game of tag with her two friends.

"Magnostadt fell. The leader of the magician's country went power mad and wanted to destroy...so many lives. No that isn't right. He did destroy so many lives. So many innocent lives were lost to his lust for power. But he didn't seem to know or realize until it was too late that those lives that he sacrificed opened some sort of gateway for a dark god of destruction."

"It was so powerful Hina that I couldn't stop it. Alibaba and his djinn equip couldn't stop it. Even the royal family of the Kou empire couldn't even stop it. We were a few second's away from being wiped out completely when Aladdin stepped up and began syphoning that monster's stolen power from it. He managed to weaken it enough to destroy it, but in doing so Aladdin fell into depravity- or at least- began to. There was simply too much darkness for him to fight off."

Hina looked down at his king with a slightly concerned expression as the man's voice cracked and waivered a bit, the only outside display of his sorrow for their young friend.

"We began to move towards him when he told Yunan that...that would have to be used to purge the darkness. We didn't know what he was talking about until Yunan had summoned the weapon and handed it to me and told me to pierce Aladdin's heart with it. It was apparently a weapon created by the gods of this world to serve a specific purpose. I didn't hesitate, I couldn't afford to. Aladdin was slipping deeper into the darkness and hesitation would allow him to sink so far that we would _never_ get him back. _I didn't know_..." Sinbad took a deep shuddering breath before continuing on with his story.

"I didn't know that using the weapon on him would hurt him. I was led to believe that it would only purge him of the darkness beginning to transform him into another dark god. But it did hurt him, Hina. _I practically killed him_. So when Yunan disappeared with Aladdin's body and threw up a barrier- _none_ of us could even get close to them to see what was going on. But I don't think any of us will ever forget the screaming."

"Those screams will echo in our ears forever and haunt us. They were such pained and desolate sounds, that we couldn't simply ignore them... He screamed for ten days and ten nights and then finally when he fell silent, Yunan returned with her and told us what had happened and then handed her to me and said that she was now my responsibility. Can you imagine what I was thinking the moment that Yunan said that to me? The moment that he handed Selene over to my care? I- I feel so unworthy. I mean for god's sake- I practically _murdered_ the Aladdin that we knew! And here I am, now, responsible for his new self's life. This is beyond wrong. So much so that it's mind boggling."

"And yet you will not back down from this challenge." It wasn't a question, though it sounded like one to Sinbad's ears. The nineteen year old king slowly pulled himself back together and let his gaze flicker back to his new adopted child. His eyes reflected his sorrow, guilt, and his determination not to run away from this.

Yes. There was many things he wished that he could change about what happened to Aladdin before his change. The fact that he had felt the need to sacrifice himself for the rest of the world was simply one thing he wished that he could change for the young magi.

Another thing that he wished that he could change was the fact that he had been partially responsible for the boy's agony when he had pierced him with the holy spear. As well as the agony that he had caused him afterwards even if that had been an indirect result of being pierced through the heart.

However like Hina had guessed, he would not back down from this particular challenge.

Yunan had left Selene in his hands to be raised, and raised she would be- with all the privileges of any child born of his own flesh and blood. He would protect her, educate her in the ways of the world, running a kingdom _and_ in magic, nurture her, be her friend, her confidant, and co conspirator in every capacity that she needed him to be.

But above all other things, he would be her father. And be damn proud to call himself such.

Speaking of- he needed to make sure that all of the fake documents were filled out and in place.

"Hina, did you get the documents I asked for ready for my return here?" The sudden and abrupt change in subject should have surprised the warrior, and probably would have if not for the fact that he was used to the way that Sinbad's mind worked.

"Yes. Everything is filled out and in place."

"Good." Sinbad said as he slowly stood up and dusted his clothing off before saying, "I want to call the court together this evening to introduce the nobles to Selene and weed out threats to her. Until then, I also need the royal seamstress summoned while I take Selene to her new room and attempt to bathe her and get her ready. I'll also want Sharkkan ready to serve as one of her personal guards along with Alibaba and Morgiana. At least until Kouen and his siblings get here."

"Yes my king, it shall be done." Hinahoho said as he bowed to his friend and then turned to leave, but not before he reached out and plucked Ja-far up and threw the young man over his shoulder.

He needed to have a few words with the former assassin about his behavior towards Selene when Sinbad was brought back unconscious before Sinbad found out about what he had screamed at the girl.


	8. Chapter 8

Sinbad sat on the edge of the bath with his pants legs drawn up above his knees with Selene carefully settled on a bench in the water, between his legs, gently lathering her pale blond hair up with the expensive scented shampoo that he'd bought. He'd picked the scent for this one specifically from his storage room to use on her hair.

The sweet smell of exotic flowers in full bloom wafting up to tease his nose causing him to sneeze every so often as Selene splashed around in the water a little bit.

Dousing his bare legs from the knee down with the water as he finished up working the lather into her soft hair before telling her to rinse off. Only to cringe slightly when she pushed off of the bench with a big sploosh, sending water almost everywhere as she dived underneath the surface, and vanished for several moments before popping back up again as he wiped his hands on a towel that he had laid out next to him on the floor.

Selene giggled at him as he bid her to return to the bench so that he could work some sweetly fragrant oil into her hair to soften it even more than it already was and found himself staring at a chibi version of a crocodile, floating in the water, eyeing him with a suspicious look.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. I use the stuff too you know." He said almost defensively as she continued to eye him from where she was floating. She didn't look the least bit convinced, if the expression on her face was anything to go by.

Sighing because it didn't look as if she intended to obey him anytime soon, he decided that he'd have to go and get her. Which meant that he'd have to strip to keep his clothes from getting any wetter and chase her down if he was going to finish up in time for this evening's introductions to occur.

Quickly stripping out of what little dry clothing he had left, he decided to keep his pants on since Selene was a female child, and he didn't- er that is- he felt woefully unprepared to answer any questions she may inevitably have about the differences in both of their anatomies. Among other things.

One that was done, he quickly checked to see where Selene was in the bath and then quickly dove in and waded over to her. She merely narrowed her eyes at him and vanished underneath the water again only to pop back up a little ways away from the wall.

Growling, Sinbad held his hands up and wiggled his fingers at her and then dove for her again, and missed yet again. This pattern must have continued for who knows how long before Hinahoho came to fetch him and found him soaking wet, sitting up on the lip of the bath with a squirming naked Selene trapped in his arms while he tried to rub the oil from before into her long hair.

It wasn't working well for him.

The girl kept squirming and trying to bite his arm and he kept having to pause in his ministrations to prevent her little teeth from sinking into his flesh. Needless to say that the image he represented at that exact moment wasn't terribly dignified. Much less noble.

Which was why he audibly growled when Hinahoho suddenly doubled over and began laughing almost hysterically at him. Earning a frustrated glare from his king as he hissed at Selene and pushed her head away from his arm yet again.

 _"Could you please stop laughing and help me!"_ Sinbad finally shouted, taking note of how Selene suddenly stilled in his arms and simply sat there for several moments looking up at him.

He blinked at her and then resumed his work, wanting to get it done before she decided to take up struggling again as Hina walked around the bathing pool and knelt down next to him and promptly took Selene from his grasp and set her down on the tile and combed his large fingers through her long oil slicked hair to cover all of it before saying, "I know that a woman's hair is her beauty and all- But I fear that if you have this much trouble out of our little one then her hair may have to be cut."

Upon hearing this, Selene stiffened and let out a weird animal like whine that caused the two men to look down at her and blink when she suddenly burst into tears.

"Hey!"

"Oh no! No, no, no, no, no, no! I wasn't trying to upset you Selene! I was just saying that maybe it might be easier for your dad to take care of you if your hair was a tad bit shorter- it'd still be long, I swear! And if you want, you can even pick the style it's cut. I'm sure that it'd look really cute, so please don't cry!"

Sinbad hugged the distraught child and shot his panicking friend a dirty look as he slowly inched his way off of the lip of the pool so that he could finish bathing her while she wasn't resisting any longer.

Once he finally finished with his task, he handed Selene off to Hinahoho so that he could wrap her in a towel and then told the man to run and go find some shears to use to cut the girl's hair, causing her to start wailing in distress. Something that the giant was more than happy to leave Sinbad to handle on his own.

The moment that he was gone and the door to the room was shut behind him, Sinbad reached out and laid a wet hand on top of her head and tried to calm her. "Now, now. Don't cry. I'm not going to cut it all off. But you must admit that having nearly ankle length hair is difficult for you to take care of daily. So this is for the best. Now, how about you settle down and think of how long or short you would like it cut. Hm?"

Selene hiccupped a few times as she slowly dropped her hands away from her eyes to look up at him for a moment as Hinahoho finally returned with the shears just in time to see Selene try and flee from the room only to be caught by her long hair and held in place by her adopted father.

Half an hour later, Selene ran out of the room completely naked while thunder clouds gathered and swirled menacingly over Sinbad and Hinahoho's heads mere seconds before they both got soaked in a magical downpour.

Sinbad's shouting could be heard throughout the halls of the palace, even from where Selene hid herself and giggled hysterically at his misfortune.


	9. Chapter 9

Selene looked in the looking glass that Sinbad had produced for her to look in to see her new hair cut and almost growled in annoyance. _How. Dare. He. Cut. Her. Hair!_ And in such a weirdly feminine style too! The way that Sinbad had shorn her hair left a majority of her locks at mid back length while the rest was layers and curled this way and that in what she _might_ have considered a nice and flattering manner, if not for the fact that she hated how she now looked.

Tugging at the soft strands curling around her jaw, she glared menacingly at her reflection.

Sinbad caught the dark look on her face and grinned even though he knew that there would likely be hell to pay for upsetting her later. Though he wasn't sure what else she could do to him at the moment. Aside from attempting to either unman him or turn him into a newt, that is.

She had already conjured a monsoon in his private rooms and flooded the area. As it was, he had to send Hinahoho to fetch him some clean clothing and the blasted man had delivered them via swimming.

 _Swimming!_

In his palace of all things!

It was infuriating to look at the girl and know who she was and why she had flooded his rooms and _not_ reach out and box her ears for it. However he refrained from doing so since he truly believed that she wouldn't know why he was irked with her in the first place.

Besides, he never would have boxed Aladdin's ears when he had been- well himself. So it didn't make much sense that he would do so with Aladdin's new self.

So instead he had gotten even in a semi mature way, and simply shorn her hair as it currently was. Though in his defense he hadn't actually meant to cut it as short as he had, but the moment that he had taken the shears to her hair and took the first clip- she had started screaming bloody murder. Which had startled him _badly_ enough where he not only cut off more than he had intended, but much of the strands had been uneven until he and calmed her down enough to finish his task and even it out.

As it was the moment that she had started screaming, she had been lucky not to accidentally lose an ear. He didn't exactly excel at hair cutting so he was pleasantly surprised with how well the cut had turned out. It was still long enough to style, and even braid if Selene wished it.

However some of the shorter strands curled nicely around her angelic little face and shoulders. Giving the impression of stunning beauty coupled with her child-like innocence.

Setting the shears aside, he picked up one of the silk ribbons that he had picked to match her pretty ankle length new dress, and carefully pulled her over to him so that he could collect some of her hair in one hand and tie it up with the ribbon.

By the time he finished, she had two little sapphire blue ribbons with gold thread embroidered flowers on them, tied in her hair, holding some of her hair back from her little face while the rest fell down her back.

"There. Now don't you look cute like this?" Selene's response to his question was a silent look of disgust that nearly had the man laughing. "Okay so you don't like it." Again her only response was to look at him oddly. This time he was able to tell what she was obviously trying to convey to him.

Disgust.

Okay so perhaps there was a tad bit _more_ of Aladdin in his Selene than they were all aware of. Although...if that were true then it was only a matter of time before she became fascinated by a beautiful woman with nice large breasts.

He almost blanched at the thought of her trailing after a woman simply so that she could attack and grope her. Or worse, what would happen when Selene started to develop breasts of her own? What if she decided to do weird things to herself?

Sinbad groaned and nearly face palmed at the thought while he mentally cursed Yunan. That was just what he needed to marry the girl off when she was older- having her fascinated by breasts. Well...on the bright side, at least she and her future husband would have something in common.

Though that fact was more than a tad bit embarrassing to think on.

But first- he had to go ahead and change his clothing and straighten his appearance so that he could take Selene before his court and introduce her as his heir.


	10. Chapter 10

**I'm here!**

 **I'm alive.**

 **And now on to the story! OMG I've missed writing!**

(********************************************************************************************************************************)

The moment that Sinbad was finished straightening his appearance, he grabbed Selene's tiny hand in his and had to partially _drag_ her out of the room that they had been readying themselves in after she had flooded his private quarters, and the moment that they were both outside of the room- they were greeted by his generals, Kouen and his two brothers. Koumui, and his youngest brother Kouha. Alibaba, and Morgiana.

"King Sinbad, are you ready to face down the nobles of your court?" Kouen asked as he watched the girl that had once been known as the magi Aladdin, walk over to Alibaba and attach herself to his waist.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Sinbad said with a soft sigh before looking back over at Selene and reaching out and plucking her up off of the floor by the scruff of the neck. But she refused to let go of Alibaba right away, so he wound up almost rendering the young man unconscious when he was all but pulled up off of the floor by his waist and fell over hitting his head.

Sighing as he hung his head a little bit, Sinbad was torn between feeling the urge to laugh and cry all at once as he used his free hand to face palm before saying, "Selene, Selene, Selene... _dearling_ please... Come on be a good girl and release your Alibaba."

She shot him a look that spoke all kinds of volumes geared towards a very strong 'no' and nearly started screaming her head off again when Morgiana stepped in and attempted to pry the former prince from her grasp.

 _Attempted_ , was of course the operative word.

However Selene wasn't budging on the whole 'let Alibaba go' issue. In fact she made a small growling sound- which wasn't as fierce as she probably meant for it to be- and it sounded just so damn cute! _No!_ Bad Sinbad, Selene's little growl wasn't cute- it was annoying. Her misbehavior was annoying, even if she didn't seem to know or realize what she was doing was wrong at the moment.

"Come on!" He grunted as he pulled one way while Morgiana pulled the other, a slight scowl marring her pretty face as she tried to pry Alibaba from Selene's grasp without hurting her.

Finally after watching the whole spectacle for several moments, Ren Kouen decided to step in and lend a hand. Reaching out he took the little girl away from Sinbad who was about to protest when he saw the emperor of Kou holding onto his adopted daughter, staring her down for a moment before he used his free hand to tap one of the hands holding onto Alibaba, causing her to automatically drop him.

"Good girl. Now you aren't going to grab someone like that again, are you?" He said as he cuddled the girl close to his chest and smiled as the bewildered child stared back at him wide eyed while Sinbad bristled slightly at the way the emperor handled _his_ adopted daughter and quickly snatched her away from him and started walking as he called over his shoulder.

"Come. We've kept the nobles of my court waiting long enough."

Kouen and the others all fell into step on either side of him as he carried Selene. And after several heartbeats of silence Kouen whispered to someone, "He seems upset," Causing Sinbad to gnash his teeth and let out a loud almost feral sounding growl followed by Kouen finally muttering, "Definitely upset."

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The court of nobles stood awaiting their king while they talked amongst themselves about the announcement that their king's proxy had informed them of. Many were outright angry. Some were in denial. But everyone in the room was scheming.

It would be a lie to say that some of the nobles within the court hadn't been trying to find legal ways of forcing Sinbad from the throne so that someone else could take over his kingdom.

The man was more or less a pacifist. A pacifist for crying out loud! How was a pacifist to properly lead a kingdom with such military strength?

And on top of that he had an _embarrassing_ lack of control around alcohol and beautiful women which was probably part of the reason each of them had been called to the palace.

It was because of these things that he was considered weak by his court despite the fact that he was one of the most powerful men in the world. Couple that with his weird ability to shirk his kingly duties, passing of laws, paperwork, recording of historical events in the kingdom's history, as well as his lack of a proper Queen and heir- and pretty much everyone within the court wanted the man gone.

So when he strolled into the large room where his court was usually held with his generals, the emperor of the Kou empire- his two brothers, his guests and a little girl tossed over one of his broad shoulders- everyone suddenly fell silent upon seeing the spectacle.

No one knew what they were supposed to think as their king settled himself on his throne with his generals surrounding him and his guests took up places not too far away from him as he carefully settled the young girl on his lap and made sure that she was nice and comfy before even turning his attention to the court who were all watching him interact with Selene like the vultures that they were.

"Everyone, thank you all for coming to the palace today, I know that it wasn't exactly planned for some of you. However a great change within our kingdom is imminent. I come before you today with a child- one that I recently found out about. Her name is Selene, she is my daughter, the only child and heir of my bloodline and my kingdom. Today I introduce her before you all, as the princess and future Queen of Sindria."

All at once all of the nobles were in an uproar, the sound of everyone's angry and outraged voices startled Selene whom had been playing with a strand of his hair up until that point.

Sinbad glared at the crowd of noblemen and women with utter disgust as he caught little snippets of words being tossed about. Things like, 'bastard child', 'unfit to rule', and 'we would never bow down to a urchin' were among just some of the things spewed from the mouths of his nobles.

Finally Kouen stepped forward and took a moment to gently ruffle Selene's silky soft hair before suddenly shouting in a most undignified manner. "BE SILENT!" His voice was so loud that it practically boomed, echoing in every corner of the large room over the voices of everyone yelling and shouting. Causing all present to fall into a shocked silence.

It was quite impressive. So much so that Sinbad wondered if it was a habit that the Emperor had developed during his younger days, when he had been dealing with all of his younger siblings. He obviously had no problem with using such a tone with others so it must be a habit.

A really, really, really bad one.

Still he had gotten everyone to shut the hell up, so that was something. Now all Sinbad had to do was address them about their less than tolerable conduct towards his daughter.

"Thank you Emperor Kouen. I will take things from here." Sinbad said as he carefully got to his feet as Kouen gave him a calculated measuring look before inclining his head towards him and then moving out of his way, however paused before getting far and simply stated,

"Give Selene to me," Sinbad looked like he would like to argue, but Kouen made him see reason easily enough with just a few words, "You may have to fight a few of them to make an example of them. They will try to hurt her to get to you if you try to keep her with you while that happens."

As much as Sinbad loathed to admit it, Kouen was right. So after handing her over to the emperor and then barking out an order for Hinahoho to 'chaperone' he then turned back to face his court and said. "I understand that each of you have strong feelings about letting an unknown person be given the ranking of a princess of our country but that is no excuse for the slanderous words, nor your traitorous behavior towards my heir here today. I'm only going to say this once so listen, and listen well. As your king, I have every right to strip you of your noble ranking and take from you- your homes, your riches, and even your livelihoods making you nothing but peasants... I even have every right as your king to kill each and every last one of you where you stand and wipe out your bloodlines so that my daughter will be able to live unopposed. However I will not do that."

"I merely wish to make one thing very clear, I myself at one time was a peasant before becoming a king and stand before you as proof that one does not need a _pedigree_ to rule or become a noble. Everyone holds that kind of potential from the day that they are born. The only true thing that separates any of us is your _undeserved arrogance_. Selene is my daughter, and my heir and you will follow her unquestioningly, respect and honor her as your princess and future Queen! Anyone who proves that they are incapable of following my daughter as a ruler will be stripped of their rank, the privileges that go with it and exiled from Sindria never to return!"

"You can't do that!" One man shouted in outrage causing Sinbad to glance at him and narrow his eyes a little bit as he realized who it was. J'enn Baz'il, one of the men whom had been causing trouble for Hina while he had been away.

His hand moved to his hip so quickly that no one really saw him draw his sword until something warm and wet had spattered across the faces of several of the young women standing in close proximity to the man mere seconds before his head fell to the floor.

Eliciting screams of horror from some of the younger girls in the room as Sinbad stood there with his sword in hand, letting what little bit of blood staining the polished metal fall to the floor in a pool before saying in his most authoritative tone, "I will not tolerate any threats to my heir. Let this be an example for anyone thinking that they have any rights to try and govern me and my actions against my right to protect what is mine. Now all of you get the hell out of my palace. My daughter is upset and you are no longer welcome in my presence." Sinbad said as he flicked his sword to clean it before carefully putting it away and then turned and walked over to Kouen and carefully took his shivering and whimpering daughter from him and cuddled her to his chest and began crooning in an effort to calm her.


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm here!**

 **I'm alive.**

 **And now on to the story! OMG I've missed writing!**

(********************************************************************************************************************************)

Sinbad sighed as he finally, slowly began to carefully inch himself away from Selene's sleeping form. It was several hours past midnight, more than half a day since he had gone before his court and named her as his daughter and heir. Almost just as long since he had made his nice rosey little speech to the lot of troublesome nobles only to wind up beheading one of them as an example to the others.

Which had not only terrified them, but Selene too if her earlier actions after he had taken her from Kouen and begun to leave the room where his nobles had gathered for this little meeting were of any indication.

The poor girl had gone from merely afraid to downright hysterical in 0.02 seconds flat and had started to wail and try to escape his grasp any way that she could, causing him to at one point- drop her again due to being startled by her actions.

But then he supposed that in hindsight, he shouldn't have been so startled.

She was essentially Aladdin. And Aladdin outright _loathed_ any kind of confrontation that everyone involved didn't walk away from.

And then there was the fact that she didn't know him all that well anymore, and he had just killed someone in front of her. Granted that it was to- in part- protect her from any kind of harm that the man and a few others had initially been planning against the two of them. But she had probably thought that he was going to kill her next.

So he couldn't say that he was one hundred percent surprised by her tantrum. At least this time it had been for a semi legitimate reason.

So it wasn't like he didn't understand the 'why's' of the situation that he found himself in. He was still building a tentative relationship with Selene, after all. And by killing the traitorous usurper as he had- he'd some how managed to make Selene think that he was a murderous person.

It had taken many hours of trying to comfort and calm the girl before he had realized that he would not be able to comfort or calm her by any normal means.

He had let Alibaba and Morgiana even try to calm her and she had refused to let the two anywhere near her. Which had ended in them having their feelings hurt from their young friend's rejection. And after he had politely asked them to leave Selene to him and watched the two walk off to sulk- he had asked for Ja-far to grab some sleeping powder and mix it with a small bit of wine so that he could give it to Selene and put her to sleep.

The drug was fast acting especially when coupled with the effects of wine, the effects of which were much like placing Selene to sleep using a very powerful sleeping spell.

One moment she had been awake and crying, attempting to push him away from her and the next she was slumped over in his grasp. The occasional hiccup and ragged sob leaving her small shivering form as he had carefully tucked her into the bed in the spare room that he had used earlier that day.

Once he was sure that she was sleeping, he had quietly dismissed his generals and let Kouen and his brothers know that rooms would be prepared for them soon if they too wished to retire for the day/night.

After that was done and he was sealed away within the room with Selene, he let out a tired sigh and took a moment to rake his finger's through his long purple hair and then walked back over to the bed knowing that he would likely spend the rest of the day and night laying next to Selene so that he could monitor her as she slept.

Settling himself down on the mattress next to her, he took note of the faint traces of tear tracks and felt his heart ache at the sight.

Now granted that he had never liked it whenever Aladdin had cried. In fact seeing tears in the young magi's eyes usually elicited a very violent response from Sinbad. One that usually ended with someone bleeding or suffering from a broken bone or two.

Why the last time it had happened had been two months before the boy had left Sindria. Sinbad had been walking down the halls of his palace with several of his friends in tow, talking about something about political arrangements when he had heard a sharp- pained yelp coming from around the corner.

Recognizing the yelp as that of Aladdin, he had taken off running and found the boy sitting on the floor just a few inches from one of his guards holding his arm and crying.

Sinbad had the supposed 'responsible party' on his back in an instant with a broken nose and a fractured arm before Aladdin or anyone else could so much as say much less _do_ anything to stop him. And once Sinbad was done stomping on his guard for making Aladdin cry, the boy finally managed to tell him that he had merely tripped and fell.

To say that Sinbad had been embarrassed would have been an understatement.

Looking at Selene as she was now, almost elicited the same sort of violent response in him. His need to protect her was simply that great. And he wasn't sure why that was. Maybe because she had once been his young friend/ the magi that he had hoped to keep by his side, or maybe it had more to do with the fact that she was now a female as well as formerly Aladdin.

He'd always hated it when girls were distressed too. Though his emotional response to their distress was a little more...stunted? Maybe...

Why the last time a girl had burst into tears near him, he had very quickly, but quietly looked for an exit and then made great use of it.

But he couldn't exactly do that with Selene. Not right this moment anyways. She was too young and vulnerable. But once she was more like herself, then he might be able to hand her off to someone else to deal with. Yunan, Alibaba and Morgiana would be ideal.

Although Ja-far and Hinahoho had just as much experience raising children as he did. If not more so.

Sighing again as he carefully shifted and pulled Selene closer to him to that her small head was nestled in the hollow of his shoulder, he spent several hours just holding her before he got somewhat bored and began telling her some tales about his youth as a peasant, and then as a dungeon capturer, and then his earlier days as a king.

He told her about the first few years spent founding his country, of all of the people and family and friends lost during the first bloody war. He had lost the woman that he had loved. The former princess of his old home country.

They had been engaged to be married when the war had broken out.

Hinahoho had lost his wife not long afterwards due to an illness of the blood that she had gotten from a festering wound that had refused to heal. The warrior had taken it quite badly and had gone looking for the man responsible for injuring his beloved wife so grievously and would have killed him if Sinbad and the others hadn't have stopped him.

Hinahoho had broken almost every bone in Sinbad's body as a result of him getting in the way to stop him from taking revenge on the man. And after everything was said and done, he'd been dragged back to their country and had been laid up in his bed almost paralyzed from the neck down while Ja-far and everyone else had rebuilt the country and lain the dead to rest on a good portion of land overlooking the sea.

After he had run out of words he lay silent for a while just trying to tamp down on the urge to break down and cry as he had so many days and nights of his life since founding the country that he loved so much before he finally started speaking again.

This time he spoke of the incredible things that he wanted her to do and see. All of the adventures he wanted her to have. He spoke until his voice grew quiet, and it became difficult to speak much more without his voice coming out in a weird sounding croak.

Finally when the last little bit of darkness finally faded and the morning light began to stream in through his window, Sinbad finally allowed himself to become silent again and carefully pushed himself up on the bed and slowly began to move away from his daughter's sleeping form.

There was a few hours yet until she would awaken. And he had much work to do, he could afford to leave her for an hour or so just to go get something to eat for himself and her too before he would return and set up a small work space to do some paperwork.


	12. Chapter 12

When Sinbad returned with a platter of bread, cheese, fruits, and slices of meat for Selene to eat, and noted that she was still deeply asleep on his bed and placed the platter down on the medium sized table over by the window and then went to summon Ja-far to bring him some paperwork to work on since he doubted that he'd be leaving his room anytime soon.

All in all setting up his desk and writing materials and ink took him a solid fifteen minutes whereas getting some of the paperwork brought to him took at least twenty more since Ja-far had to do more than one trip before he had brought Sinbad enough to truly occupy him.

Once that was done, Ja-far checked on Selene to make sure that the sleeping drug would be wearing off soon before telling Sinbad that she was going to wake up bright eyed and ready to give him hell in no time flat.

Sinbad blanched a little bit at his words and told his old friend to please leave before she actually did awaken and give him hell. Muttering something along the lines of not wanting to see Ja-far struck down by lightening if Selene decided to call on her magical ability while he was still in the room.

Afterwards, Sinbad sat in relative silence and worked as he waited for Selene to awaken.

He must have worked for several hours before his daughter- wow, he still sort of felt shocked every time that he thought that- yet he was amazed by how easily he had resigned himself to raising the girl as his own. Pausing from shuffling the documents in his hands for a moment, he looked over at the small curled up child and felt his lips curve up in a semblance of an affectionate smile.

Deciding to set the work aside for the time being so that he could go and check on his daughter, he slowly set the papers aside and then stood up, grunting softly as he popped his spine a little bit before he moved away from his makeshift work station.

Once he was over beside the bed, he noted that Selene's eyes were open slightly and she had a groggy expression on her face as he sat himself down on the edge of the bed and reached out to brush her bangs away from her face. "Hello sleepyhead. Are you finally waking up for me?"

Selene just gave him an odd look and huffed quietly.

For some reason she felt much calmer than she had yesterday. Though she didn't really understand that it was partially due to the influence of the drug that been given to her the day before.

Apparently Ja-far had snuck in a little something extra to help her relax and _stay_ that way.

Sinbad had long learned all of the signs and symptom's of the relaxant drug that was evidently still coursing through Selene's veins and leaned over her to check her eyes as an almost playful sounding growl escaped him, causing the child to giggle slightly.

He would have to have a word with Ja-far later about slipping his daughter drugs that she may not need. Though it wasn't as if he couldn't understand why the younger man had done it in the first place. Selene was a mite difficult to read- intention wise anyways. And as such, he'd not known if she would awaken this morning throwing another fit or not.

So Ja-far had obviously slipped her the extra drug to give them all some down time before she was totally coherent again and giving them all hell.

Something that he _would_ be speaking the younger man about later. But right now, he needed to try and wake Selene up a bit so that she could eat something since the food might very well help with the drugs coursing through her system.

Carefully collecting the small child in his arms, he set her on his lap and freed one of his hands to gently pat her on the cheek. Causing her to open her eyes and blink several times before her eyes drifted shut again.

"Selene, sweetheart you need to wake up." Sinbad said as he patted her cheek a little harder. Not hard enough to pass for a slap or any other violent or abusive move against her. He found such tactics distasteful in the extreme when handling a small child or girl. However it was enough to elicit a soft half whimper/half groan from her as she tried to open her eyes again.

"That's it dearling. Open your eyes." Sinbad said coaxingly as he waited patiently for her to do as he bid and finally after some long, anxious filled minutes, she managed to finally open her eyes and look at him as she stifled a big yawn behind one of her small hands. Causing him to chuckle softly as he stood up from the bed with her still securely held in his arms and made his way over to the table where the food was and took a moment to fix her a plate before moving to fix his own since he hadn't eaten yet himself.

She ate slowly, her movements were more than just slightly uncoordinated. The poor girl kept dropping her food before she could so much as take a bit of it. Though she _did_ try rather valiantly to catch it or stop it from falling wherever it did. Much to his amusement.

However after watching this happen for several moments, Sinbad placed his fork aside and took hers from her hand and speared something and then held it up for her to take into her mouth. And received a blank stare for several moments for his efforts before she finally did _something._

Unfortunately, that something was along the lines of dozing off and practically falling onto the fork and winding up with it embedded in her forehead. Which caused not only Sinbad to shout in alarm, but Selene to yelp and yank the fork out of her skin and begin to cry in distress as Sinbad thought,

 _Oh I am definitely going to have a stern talking to with Ja-far._ He would make sure that his friend was never the cause of such an incident again.

Especially when during her crying jag, she hiccupped and somehow set the silk curtains in the room on fire.


End file.
